Loose-leaf retaining device



May 10, 1960 J. J. PLUCKEBAUM LOOSE-LEAF RETAINING DEVICE Original Filed Nov. 3, 1954 INVENTOR. JEROME J PLUGKEBAUM LOOSE-LEAF RETAINING DEVICE Jerome 'J. Pluckebaum, Cocoa, Fla., assignor to The Moiiltigomery Printing Company, Troy, Ohio, a copartners p i Original vapplication November 3, 1954, Serial No. 466,487,v now Patent No. 2,878,815, dated March 24, 1959; Divided and this application October 20, 1955, Serial No. 541,632

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-23) An object of the invention is to provide simple, inexpensive sheet retaining means for association with a cover for providing the highly efficient loose-leaf binder structure.

Another object of the invention is to provide a looseleaf retaining device which is fabricated from a single piece of sheet material provided with integrally formed sheet receiving members and with flexible means which co-operate with said members to prevent the accidental or unintentional disassociation of a sheet therefrom.

A further object of the invention is to provide a looseleaf retaining device having the hereinabove described characteristics which may be fabricated from an integral sheet of flexible material to provide an elongated top, rear and bottom wall wherein the bottom and rear walls are adapted to be secured to a cover member .by suitable means, such as, by way of example, adhesives, thereby facilitating the fabrication of neat appearing, inexpensive binders. I

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a loose-leaf retaining device with means for enabling looseleaf sheets to be readily associated with and/or removed from the sheet receiving members thereof.

Another object of the invention is to provide a looseleaf retaining device with leaf receiving means which are so constructed and arranged as to enable the leaves to be opened substantially 180 for making both the front and rear sides of the leaves easily accessible.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a loose-leaf retaining device having the hereinabove described characteristics and which includes means for enabling any of the leaves to be inserted or removed without disturbing the other leaves already retained in the device.

These and other objects are attained by the means described herein and as disclosed in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a loose-leaf binder assembly with a portion of the upper cover cut away to reveal a loose-leaf retaining device embodying the teachings of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the lower left portion of the binder of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustrating the manner in which a sheet may be removed from the sheet retaining device.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing a sheet in the process of being associated with the leaf retaining device.

With reference nowto the drawings, the numerals 10,

nitcd States atent ample, plastic, metal, or fibre, whereby to include an elongated top, rear and bottom walls 20, 22 and 24. The device may be securely fastened to a cover by anchoring bottom wall 24 to the rear edge of bottom wall 12 of the cover and rear wall 22 to rear wall 14 of the cover such as, by way of example, by means of a suitable adhesive denoted generally by the numeral 25, Fig. 2. The

box-like nature of the elongate walls 10, 12 and 14 will impart rigidity to the cover and provide a space of predetermined width for the reception of loose-leaf sheets.

Referring now to Figs. 1 through 6, it will be noted that the leaf receiving member has been generally indicated by the numeral 90, said member including a forward upstanding portion 92 in substantial spaced parallelism with rear wall 22 and with an upper and rearwardly extending portion '94 disposed in substantial spaced parallelism with bottom wall 24. As best illustrated in Fig. 4, the width of horizontal portion 94 may be of a lesser dimension than the width of the vertical or upstanding portion 92 for thereby providing a flexure zone or area at the upper end of portion 92. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the free end 96 is upturned and normally and yieldably overlappingly engages the free or forward end of upper wall 20, that is, the free end of member is normally disposed in interfering relationship with portions of top wall 20, for precluding the accidental or unintentional removal of sheets.

It will be noted that sheets may be easily removed by applying an endwise pull thereto after the apertures thereof have been positioned on horizontal portion 94, as illustrated in Fig. 5. Sheets 36 may be simply mounted onto the leaf receiving member by positioning the openings 34 thereof over free end 96 of the horizontal leg 94 and of then applying an endwise movement to the sheets in the direction indicated by the headed arrow 97 for thereby threading the sheets onto the leaf retaining member.

From the foregoing, it will be noted that I have thus provided simple yet highly effective means for securing loose-leaf sheets into a binder against accidental or unintentional displacement therefrom while providing sheet retaining means which enable sheets to be simply and easily associated with or removed from the device in response to an intentional operation on the part of the operator.

It should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made in the structural details of the device, within the scope of the appended claim, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

A loose leaf retaining device comprising an elongate sheet of resilient material defining a bottom wall, an-

upstanding rear wall extending substantially normally to mally to said rear wall and spaced from and parallel to said bottom wall, said bottom wall and said top wall having elongated forward edge portions, the edge portion of said top wall being spaced rearwardly a substantial distance of the edge portion of said bottom wall, a plurality of resilient leaf receiving members formed integrally along said edge portion of the bottom wall, each of said leaf receiving members including a first portion extending upwardly substantially normally to said wall and an integral second portion extending substantially normally to said first portion and parallel to said bottom a flexure zone at the upper end of said first portion, said 5 free end portion being in yieldable engagement with the upper surface of said top wall, said free end portion being adapted to be flexed upwardly out of engagement with the top wall incident to insertion and removal of leaves, one lateral edge portion of each of said leaf receiving members being cut away at the point of juncture between said first and second portions thereof for providing the zone of flexure thereat.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Roberts Jan. 25, Thorp Sept. 9, Dunbar July 22, Landsberg Aug. 28, Prache H June 19, Miller Nov. 11, Kinney Aug. 5,

FOREIGN PATENTS France May 6, Germany May 17, 

